The Master Sketchbook
by Lord Momo of the Momo Dynasty
Summary: Changed Title. Multi-chaptered LDD fic, rating may go up to T. "We call it the master sketchbook..."
1. The Prologue

**My first Bridge story! I'm just experimenting with a different writing challenge: using my life experiences (which are considerably uneventful, since I'm still 14) to transfer the real life scene and use my imagination to create "A Whole New World", as some would say. Oh yeah, I also got inspired by a certain BtT fic. You know, the one with over 300,000 words xD**

**My choice of words in this story will be considerably basic and my syntax will be fairly simple for anyone who speaks English regularly. Taking these matters into account, I hope none of you will have any trouble understanding, unless I write something that just doesn't make sense. I do take into account the matter of pronouns, for they can be equally confusing as a jigsaw puzzle when used incorrectly. For example, "She hugged her sister, and afterwards hugged him, who just finished talking to him in her room."**

**I sometimes like to indirectly tell a reader what has happened. For example, "She died" would be too monotonous, and what would be more appropriate would be "the look in her eyes told the pair that the once energetic girl they all knew and loved would be gone forever."**

**I also try to use phrases like "a fish out of water" and "a fool's paradise". Understanding these phrases is usually important to understand the meaning to that specific passage.**

**Grammar may come up as an annoyance in my stories, since I have a bad habit to constantly change tenses. Otherwise, everything else should be completely "edible".**

**I'm going to modify some of the ages of the characters of the story, though not significantly.**

**And yes, to confirm early suspicions, this story is a spinoff of what would've happened had Leslie not drowned in the original BtT book and movie, like most other BtT fics.**

**The year will be set at 2005 that the Burkes moved to Lark Creek, probably because I haven't the slightest clue at what kids did during the 1900s. Then again, Jess and Leslie aren't normal kids.**

**Standard Disclaimer: BtT does not belong to me, nor do any of the characters. Written for non-profit reasons.**

--

Leslie Burke, waving goodbye to the bus driver as she stepped out into the gleaming sunlight, had a very uneventful first day of school during her second year at Lark Creek. And alongside her, as usual, was her best friend Jesse Aarons.

The previous summer had been spent playing out in the field. Disturbed by the rope to Terabithia breaking when Leslie tried to hook it with the stick, the kids had decided not to spend any more time trying to get through to their own magical kingdom without the necessary precautions. Not that they had a need to. Jess, slightly younger than Leslie, had spent most of the time not doing chores exploring the land with his best friend. They soon forgot their worries, and inevitably forgot about Terabithia, the main reason being that Terabithia was merely a place to escape to while being tormented in their life at school.

And there was certainly no Scott Hoager or Gary Fulcher ruining their seemingly endless fun during Jess and Leslie's first summer together.

Throughout the summer, Leslie and Jess's friendship only grew as the summer progressed. Unlike their first couple encounters when Leslie moved to Lark Creek, however, growing a friendship takes considerably longer than starting one. But neither of them noticed until one faithful day

The Burkes and Aarons, never having really gotten to known each other, decided to have a picnic out on the field. Of course, it was actually Leslie's idea in the first place, and Jess had been reluctant at first, but when he told his mom of the idea, he knew the moment he saw her smile that there was no backing out of this. Shortly afterwards, he told Mary Aarons that he was going to meet Leslie. Her mom held no objections, but only told him to come back in an hour for dinner.

Of course, Leslie was absolutely delighted at hearing the approval. The two kids then proceeded to walk to their favorite spot, a big and beautiful oak tree beside the creek. Unconsciously, she gently took Jess's left arm and placed it between hers, making a lock of arms. Jess showed a sign of confusion on his face, but it was unnoticed by the ecstatic girl, who proceeded to tell him that their parents were taking a break from writing and had agreed to the picnic also.

The kids arrived in a reasonably short amount of time, considering their entanglement. There, Jess Aarons and Leslie Burke talked of their plans together, and Leslie, always imaginative, suggested many ideas for their activities tomorrow involving both the families. Both fell asleep after a while with smiles on their faces, and dreaming wonderful dreams. Mr. Aarons found the pair a while later, and discovered Leslie's head resting on Jess's shoulder, her right hand on his left leg palm up, her left leg crossed over her right. Both backs were resting against the tree trunk.

Jack scolded his son afterwards about not returning back for dinner on time. But Jesse Aarons thought he noticed a hint of amusement in his eyes as his father turned and shut the door, but not before kissing May Belle goodnight.

"Turn off your lights, Jess."


	2. The Morning

"Wake up Jess, wake up!"

_Everything seemed chimerical. Why was it so?_

_He was standing somewhere. It was somewhere and yet it was… nowhere. Jess knew that this place looked familiar. He felt a vague sense of déjà vu. Suddenly he knew what was going to happen. He was prepared for it._

_He spun about, ready to finally see who was haunting this space of nothingness. _

_A tall figure loomed over him, immediately shrouding the boy in shadows…_

"Jess!"

There was no denying it. It was the third time that he had been interrupted from his dream. _And I got so close too!_

Jesse Aarons, a bit miffed, groggily sat upright on his smaller-than-average bed. It came to him as no surprise when his second youngest sister jumped up and down right in front of him. So close, in fact, that she accidentally tripped on one of her discarded Barbie heads. Jess, knowing fully well what May Belle's reaction was going to be, wearily covered his ears.

The cry never came. Instead, the youth climbed immediately back up, seemingly unscathed. Jess began to wonder if May Belle crying would've been what he would've preferred compared to his treatment right now, as she commenced into pushing her now extremely annoyed brother and yelled streams of words. The few that had, to Jess's dismay, leaked into his brain included "Leslie", "picnic", and "Leslie".

_Leslie!_

Today was the day. No wonder May Belle was so excited! Today was the day that the Burkes and Aarons had their picnic.

Jess calmed his sister down, and shortly afterwards felt like he had just fought the Dark Master himself, so exhausted he was.

_Sometimes I just feel like the more I sleep the more tired I get._

The adolescent half walked, half crawled to the window beside May Belle's bed, and looked outside. A ray of sunlight hit his eyes, and he kept on blinking, trying to get the dazed feeling out of his mind. Then Jesse Aarons changed his angle and tried looking outside again.

The day couldn't have been any better than he had wanted it to be. In fact, it was _perfect_. He suddenly thought of what Leslie would think of this paranormal weather. The boy closed his eyes and imagined hers, almost always sparkling and full of energy, gazing right pass the horizon. She probably felt that she could just float on one of the extraordinary clouds. In fact, Jess _knew_ that she felt that way, partially because he felt the same.

After a rather hurried breakfast which consisted of two pancakes and some crackers, a quick attire change, and frantic work exclusively directed to eliminate his day's chores, Jess was done. He looked up at the living room clock on the wall to his right as he came in the house, face with a long streak of dirt. He hadn't noticed until his father came back from the greenhouse shortly after Jess and made a slightly crude remark about it.

"You've got dirt on your face. Go wash it off."

Jack's son didn't need to be told twice, and ran up the stairs, two at a time. Mr. Aarons unconsciously gazed at the now empty staircase for a few seconds, snapped out of his reverie, and went back to _his _share of chores. "One day," he said to no one in particular, "One day, when I get a promotion, I'm going to get that boy a new pair of shoes."

--

Indeed, while the preceding events were occurring in the Aarons household, Leslie Burke was in her room, dreamily gazing at the clouds above her. She gently placed a finger upon her window and slowly traced one cloud of particular interest. It reminded Leslie of her dog, P.T.. No sooner had she finished her imperceptible drawing, there was a knock on her door. Slightly dazed by coming out of her pleasant time alone, Leslie failed to respond.

The knock came again, shortly followed by a rather concerned voice.

"Leslie, are you up?" Leslie, finally fully recovered and realized the situation she was currently in, responded with a cheerful tone. Outside the room, Judy Burke smiled.

"Well alright, breakfast is downstairs. Come down when you're ready."

"Okay, Judy. Be down in a second."

A few minutes after, down she came. Leslie smelled the scent she had wanted to smell for so long: a freshly cooked breakfast. _It's been a while since I've had one of these_, Leslie thought to herself. She inhaled again at the base of the house's stairs, trying to capture the scent again before it got too strong. She never liked it strong. _And this time, _she thought,_ it's perfect._

She took her time walking to the kitchen island, where plates sat with fresh fruit and bacon and everything else she could imagine upon them. Having not sat in the high benches for a month or so, she unconsciously struggled on top of it, using her right arm as support as Leslie climbed on a chair that was as half as tall as her. Bill, finding such a spectacle funny, laughed. Leslie gave him a look that could've cut through rubber, but a second later started laughing also, though she didn't know why. They both knew, however, that the look Leslie gave her dad wasn't one of anger, nor was it one of annoyance. It was a look that simply stated that she loved him.

Bill loved these looks his daughter gave him from time to time. It made him happier than ever before, excluding the day when he and Judy married. But it was pretty darn close, because feeling such love from his daughter emotionally raised his self esteem up as well as his happiness.

Of course, this all happened over the interval of less than a minute. Yet Bill had thought about all of those emotions in a little less than a second. A person had to wonder how that was possible, especially a writer like Bill... which suddenly gave him the inspiration to start a new book. _But of course, not before I've had my share of happiness with Leslie. _

The father sat down with the daughter and ate. He hadn't felt this happy in a long time. How curious that a simple breakfast could lift one's spirits so high, Bill did not know. However, he did know that part of the mystery he was trying to uncover involved his daughter, and knew that without her, nothing else would really matter.

Judy joined them shortly afterwards. Having never seen her husband in such joy for quite a long while, she gazed curiously at the two while she sat on the adjacent side of the two, while father and daughter sat parallel to each other. Leslie, suddenly realizing that her mother had joined the island, cheerfully said "Hey, Judy." To which Judy responded in an inquisitive tone.

Bill, also having realized his wife's presence after Leslie had spoke to her, piped up.

"Did you know that Leslie outran all the boys in Lark Creek elementary… on her first day of school?" His wife smiled.

"No I didn't."

"Well, it was during recess…"

The trio continued bantering and telling stories for what seemed like an hour. To Leslie's parents, it was the best time they've had in a long time, and they couldn't possibly imagine the rest of the day getting better than it already had gotten.

To Leslie, the day had only begun.


	3. The Sketchbook

**Several notes before the start of this chapter :)**

**First, I'm going to change my style a bit for this story.**

**Second, there will be some chapters (like the one before) that will be a bit boring, to say the least. Everything is needed, everything builds up, and everything will work out.  
**

**Third, I've set all the kids' ages, as followed:**

**Jesse Aarons Jr.- 12**

**Leslie Burke- 12**

**May Belle Aarons- 8**

**Joyce Ann Aarons-4**

**Brenda Aarons- 16**

**Ellie Aarons- 15**

**Fortunately, for those of you who are reading this story, I do not need reviews to keep going. I thrive on the fact that I know I can write a half-decent piece of work. I think of reviews as a little bonus :). **

**Here's chapter 3. Hope you enjoy. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own BtT**

**--**

Lunchtime for the Aarons' household was not spectacular; in fact, Jess only had a quarter of a candy bar that Leslie gave him a week ago. It wasn't that he didn't like it; in fact it was quite the opposite. He _loved_ it, so he tried to savor every bite and more often than not, he would just let it melt in his mouth before swallowing the chocolaty substance down. He once asked Leslie why she didn't eat candy bars more often; how could anyone resist such a sensation?

"_You know, Bill and Judy actually bought that bar for my cousin on our way to her birthday party. But since it turned out that she was sick, I asked for it and Bill gave it to me without complaint. I knew you would like it, so I gave it to you."_

_Jess had given her a puzzled expression. "You don't like candy bars?"_

_Leslie pondered at the question for a short moment, then jokingly replied, "... no, not really. I prefer something that doesn't kill your teeth in ten years."_

_They laughed._

No sooner had lunch finished, it was time to pack. Jess knew that he didn't need to bring much, but felt that he still should give something to Leslie's parents, as a sign of respect. He had been over to their house a few times, mostly for homework, but they had never actually met _properly_.

Meanwhile, everyone else in the house was doing different things. Brenda and Ellie were doing absolutely _nothing_; they had not agreed to the trip in the first place, but when their mom gave them _the look_, they knew they could not do anything about it. And so they just sat on the living room couch, not paying attention to anything else in the house, daydreaming of what girls dream of. May Belle and Joyce Ann, however, were putting everything they could find into May Belle's backpack. Actually, it was May Belle doing all the work, and Joycie just clapped and laughed, blissfully unaware of anything else... not that she needed to. However, for Mary Aarons, it was quite the opposite. She had to pay attention to every_thing_ and every_one_ in the house, especially since no one was doing anything useful to help her pack. Jesse Sr. wasn't in the house; he had to go to the store because of an emergency, but promised that he would be back soon. He didn't hesitate to tell the family to go ahead with the picnic if he had not come back by the time it started. Finally having had enough, Mary gave an exasperated sigh and slightly yelled, "Jess, come down here and help me pack, please."

"Yeah, be down in a second." The response wasn't one she had wanted to hear, but figured that she couldn't do anything about it. She knew that when he said that to her, he rarely meant it. He certainly didn't need to pack anything of his own, so soon the mother figured that her son was probably drawing something, probably for Leslie or her parents.

She turned her attention to the two girls sitting on the couch. They were already looking at her, but quickly tried to turn their heads sideways as to pretend to actually be_ doing_ something. Mrs. Aarons had none of that.

"How many times have you tried to get out of something?"

The girls mumbled an incomprehensible statement, not bothering to turn their heads to their mother. Mary put her hands on her hips.

"And how many times has it actually worked?"

This time, the answer was clear. "None", the girls replied in defeat. Brenda looked like she wanted to say a bit more to defend herself, but Ellie just stood up and walked over to her mother. Brenda decided not to say whatever was on her mind, and shortly afterwards followed her sister to help Mary pack. Not two minutes into their new job, the girls started groaning and complaining.

"Why do we have to bring this much stuff?"

"Why can't Jess help you pack?"

"We always get all the work, w-"

The sound quickly drowned out of Mrs. Aaron's ears as she heard footsteps outside. She opened the door to find a somewhat eager Leslie Burke. Something about her looked different, but she couldn't put a finger on it.

"Hi, Mrs. Aarons! Is Jess home?"

"Yes, he's in his room. Feel free to go up, but you should knock first; he doesn't like to be disturbed when he's drawing.

As Leslie made her way up the stairs, Mary shut the front door and briefly glanced at the adolescent one last time. Then she quickly realized what was different about her, once she looked at Leslie from a farther distance. The expression on Mary's face was one of confusion, but her lips formed a grin as she heard her boy exclaim in surprise.

--

"You're wearing a dress!"

Jess couldn't believe it. She _never_ wore a dress except for the times that she goes to church with him. And after they come back, she almost always changes back into… her _style _of clothes. She told him once that she didn't like dresses as much as she did her "normal" attire, so it came to Jess as a great surprise that Leslie was standing here before him, wearing a purple dress that came down to her knees. But, to Jess's somewhat sweet comfort, she still had on her normal pair of boots. Meanwhile, while Jess was looking her up and down, he didn't notice his best friend blush slightly. "…Jess, you can stop gaping at me now."

The boy quickly blinked and looked up, his cheeks slightly red. Then, to Jess's slight horror, he caught her eyes as he tried to turn his head sideways to avoid looking at her. There was no getting out of it now.

The color of her pupils was so extraordinary that Jess figured that it must be a new color. It was a while before both of them realized what they were doing, and when they finally got all five of their senses back, they started laughing… hard. Soon Jess had to crawl into a ball on his bed to keep his laughter from reaching an all time high. Despite the uncontrollable laughter, he couldn't figure out _why_ he was laughing so hard.

_Maybe it was just one of those moments where nothing was funny so _everything_ was funny._

His thoughts raced away from his mind as he eventually stopped laughing, sat up and found himself a foot away from Leslie, also sitting on his bed. She was looking at a piece of paper that she found on the ground, lying face-up for the world to see. It then dawned on Jess that the piece of drawing she was looking at was the one he was drawing right before she came into his room; the shock of it made his hands tremble as he fidgeted around, waiting for the eventual criticism that he knew was to come any second. It was, after all, Jess's first attempt at something this complicated, and he had intended to show the drawing to her after he was done perfecting every detail. Right now, it was barely the end result of a rough sketch.

"…it's really nice, Jess."

"I know, I know, I know its bad and I got the perspectives all wrong, but I- wait, what'd you say?" He stared at Leslie in disbelief. She giggled.

"I said I think it's really nice." She handed Jess his picture back, and stood up to leave. "I have to go back because Bill told me that he wants me to do something before the picnic. See ya!" Shock still regulated through Jess's body as he still sat on the bed trying to comprehend what had just happened. He snapped back to the real world when Leslie, who had noticed that he was still in a whole other world, bent down and gave the boy a quick peck on the cheek. She left shortly left after that, and Jess only caught a glimpse of her golden hair as she left the room. And so, a rather stunned Jesse Aarons sat on his bed, wave after wave of incomprehensible feelings crashing down upon him. Suddenly, something sprang up in his head.

"Why'd you come here anyways?" he called after her. Whether she heard or not, no answer came back to him.

--

Leslie walked upon the dirt road, enjoying the crumbling sound that her boots made upon making contact with the small and rocky pieces of nature.

_We need a place. Just for us. _

_Huh?_

_You know, a place where there's no Janice Avery or Scott Hoager._

_Yeah, but when we go back to school, there they are again…_

It was the Saturday of their first week of school that the picnic was taking place. The first week had been rather boring compared to Leslie's first year, and the main cause of such an oddity was the remarkable event of Scott Hoager moving away to New York. Gary, no longer having a "torture pal" with him, found interest in bullying the youngest third and fourth graders of one only two schools in Lark Creek, the one that all of the kids of the small town went to. The one that Leslie and Jess went to went from kindergarten to eighth grade; the other went from ninth to twelfth. From her father and her previous experience in Arlington, Leslie knew that some schools went only from kindergarten to fifth, and there would be another school in the same town that went from sixth to eighth. This was called "middle school." She often wondered why there wasn't this "middle school" thing in Lark Creek; it certainly seemed better for both younger and older kids.

Janice Avery became their part-time friend; she no longer bullied them or anyone else in the school. Leslie and Jess noticed that ever since the fake letter and the incident in the girl's bathroom, her personality had changed from rude and undisciplined to… semi-rude and sort of undisciplined. A lot of times at lunch, Jess and Leslie would see Janice sitting alone under a tree, a finger twiddling her hair, clearly in thought. And out of these common situations, a smile would sometimes find their way to the two kids. An unspoken truce between Jess and Janice had formed and Leslie was the bridge; all three of them knew that.

On the Monday of the first week of school, _"Free to Pee!"_ could be heard all across the playground nearly every single minute during lunch. On Tuesday, the chant died down, and there was peace for the ears of many.

Waking up from her thoughts, Leslie found herself at the front of her house where Bill was standing outside the front door, just as she thought, waiting for her. He had a straw hat on, and it was revealed that Judy also had one on when she walked out of the house with a large picnic basket in her hand. Leslie noticed that both her parents had their hands full. Besides the basket, her mom had a rather large box, supported by being under Judy's armpit, and wrapped up with some wrapping paper filled with an array of colors. Bill, on the other hand, had two more baskets, both slightly larger than the already big one Judy was holding. They both looked ready to go, but Leslie was puzzled. "Isn't the picnic at five? What time is it right now?"

Bill was the first to answer. "It's three right now. But you know, Leslie, being prepared early is better than being prepared late. Here, help me put this stuff on our bikes. We'll go to our picnic spot first and set up-"

"And then maybe relax a little bit." Judy piped in, a curious smile on her face. Bill smiled back at his wife.

"Yes, that too." Then, returning her attention to Leslie, continued. "Anyways… Leslie, can you finish washing the dishes inside? You can go to the Aarons' house after you're done, and go with them together to the picnic when the time comes."

It was an "I'm asking you to do this" _statement_ more than a "can you please do this?" _question_, but Leslie wouldn't have said no either way. Bidding her parents goodbye after helping them put the baskets on their red and blue bikes, she turned around, closed the door, and went into the kitchen.

"Oh my gosh…" Leslie immediately took back her thoughts about accepting the job just five minutes ago. Anyone would've; the number of piles of dishes and the number of dishes in each pile must've easily been able to be stacked up into a miniature replica of the Eiffel Tower. Usually, the girl didn't mind doing the dishes. On most days it was only six or seven; rarely, when there was something to celebrate about, around fifteen would've appeared. Leslie had caught a glimpse of a stack of dirty dishes in Jess's house when she last went there to visit Jess; the pile now seemed to be extraordinarily small compared to the one that she had to deal with right now. Making a big sigh for mental relief, and getting a glass of lemonade from the fridge, she put on the sink gloves and the kitchen bib, and got started.

Leslie Burke took pride in almost everything she did; her work, her play, and even occasionally, her mistakes. She took the time to rinse, wash, rinse again, and dry each and every plate and bowl as if it had a soul of its own, carefully inspecting it for any brown spots or specks before setting it on the island in the middle of the kitchen. A couple of them were a bit more challenging, one Leslie figured to be dried up tomato paste, whatever _that _was used for, and another which smelled, to her surprise, like peanut butter. By the time she was taking off the gloves and giving a look at the kitchen clock on the wall, it was fifteen before four o'clock. Hands trembling a little, she power walked out the house, closed the door behind her, and set off the journey to her best friend's house.

--

"You really should do something other than drawing."

Jess looked up from his sketchbook. He hadn't heard her footsteps, and here she was, having seen her only around an hour ago, standing in front of him in his room. "What?" But he only found himself without his sketchbook a second later, the item being snatched away from him.

Leslie gave an exasperated sigh. _Why is it that Jess always seems this zoned out when he's drawing?_

"C'mon Leslie, give that back. Almost all of my life's work is in there." Leslie raised a sarcastic eyebrow. "I'm not kidding! I even dated all of my pictures on the back of each sheet. Give that back and I'll show you."

Too rare of a chance to miss, since Jess seldom showed his pictures to Leslie without being persuaded twice or more, Leslie gave back the sketchbook. It suddenly seemed considerably larger as it left her hands. Plopping down on the bed, she leaned her body closer to Jess for a better look as Jess opened the first page of his gateway to imagination.

The first picture was a stick figure with three hairs coming out of its overlarge head, standing in the middle of nowhere. On the back, it was dated 5/12/98.

"You were five when you first started drawing?"

"Yeah, I was…" leaning back on his bed, he closed his eyes, as if remembering a good memory. "Back when Ellie and Brenda weren't jerks, the three of us would play all the time. Then, I got my hands on a pencil and things went crazy. Brenda and Ellie were blamed for not stopping me drawing on the walls of the house, but in the end everything worked out. I even got-" Jess patted his sketchbook "-this."

"How many of these do you have?"

"How many of what?" Jess sat up.

"These sketchbooks!"

"Well, there's this one. My whole family knows about this one cause it was my mom who gave it to me. We call it the master sketchbook, cause its so big. There are three others I have, one I got from Dad when I saved all the plants in the greenhouse from utter destruction- trust me, you don't wanna know… the second one was from the first grade art festival for most creativity. Anyways…" The two kids turned their attention back to the "master" sketchbook. "…all of these were just doodling." While Jess was skipping a few pages, Leslie caught a glimpse of some of them; many of them were messy and had black marks everywhere on the page. As the pages turned, the dates got more recent. Finally, they reached 1/25/02. The handwriting for the dates had changed; Leslie figured that Jess's mom or Ellie or Brenda was doing all the dating until Jess got older.

The person in the drawing was much improved than the one back from '98, though it was still very comical. The person had a body, arms, and legs. Everything was out of perspective and the ratio was wrong, but one particular item caught Leslie's eye.

"You drew a girl?" When Jess didn't reply, she took the book from the boy's lap and started flipping the pages. A brief look at all the pictures onward showed a girl with long hair, drawn yellow from a crayon. The dates also had a pattern; each picture was dated a day after the previous, instead of the usual interval of two to three days per drawing. Finally, Leslie arrived at 2/13/02. Jess suddenly snatched the book away from her grasps. Leslie was just about to ask why he did that when she noticed that Jess's face was a bit red. Nevertheless, he closed the book and put it away in his box of precious items, which was sitting on the upper left hand corner of the bed.

"I think we should go down now." Then, without waiting for a reply, Jess got up and quickly walked out of the room stiffly.

Leslie stood up, standing beside the edge of Jess's bed.

_Why did Jess take away the book from me? It's not like I was doing anything to it, or being rude…_

_Maybe I did something unconsciously that upset him._

_Or maybe, he just wanted his privacy. _

Satisfied to assume that that was what really happened, she headed out the bedroom door and went downstairs, looking for Jess. However, at the middle of the stairs, she stopped in her tracks. Fortunately, no one downstairs noticed her yet, because she just stood there, one foot on a step below another, her left hand gripping the metal bar at the side. Leslie brought an image back to her head.

_2/13/02_

_February 13__th__, 2002._

_February 13__th__._

Only then had Leslie realized that Valentine's Day was only one page away.


	4. The Toothbrush and the Clouds

**Chapter Four Author's Notes**

**My friend AvatarKataang will be my semi-beta for the next chapter or so, mainly just for fun (: **

**This chapter (or maybe even this entire story) is dedicated to him for two reasons: first, for **_**finally**_** getting over the loss of his best friend, and second for having to go through the pain that I've never felt at such an early stage in his life.**

**Remember, general feedback is appreciated, but I welcome constructive criticism with open arms and an open mind. The journey to becoming a better writer starts with one rocky road, which forks off to many others. This is one of them.**

**Disclaimer: ****BtT does not belong to me, nor do any of the characters. Not written for profit.**

**--**

Jess fiddled around with his toothbrush while sitting on the toilet. The sound of his older sisters bickering in the kitchen could've been heard for miles on end. As loud as it was, Jess barely heard it over his own thoughts.

The fact that Leslie had seen _that_ much of his drawings bugged him, but it _irked_ him that he himself let Leslie see them. He had only planned for her to see the first page, maybe one or two pages after that…

_But never HALF of the darn thing! Thank god I got lucky that I stopped her before she got to the Valentine's Day part, or else she would've been bugging me for weeks._

An image of Leslie literally as a bug jumped into his mind, making himself chuckle.

As much as Jess would've liked to sit there and get lost in his own thoughts, he knew that Leslie was probably looking for him. Almost lazily, the boy stood up, put his toothbrush back into the toothbrush cup, and opened the bathroom door.

He took a quick glance at the kitchen as he walked outside before being grasped on the arm, and almost immediately Jess found himself being dragged up the stairs to his own room. It was a good thing, too. Because of Joyce Ann's nature as a baby, and because of the two sisters bickering to their mom, pandemonium was ensuing downstairs.

Leslie closed the door behind them and they both slid down on the floor, backs pressing against the door. Realizing that his friend had a bright red smudge on her cheek, Jess quickly reached for the Kleenex box, lying sideways on the floor, and offered it to Leslie. As she gratefully took a tissue, Jess took a closer look at his friend, and realized that the red smudge was ketchup. As if to confirm his beliefs, Leslie spoke up.

"It's just ketchup. Joyce Ann had a pack of it in her hands, and when she squeezed it, it just sort of, you know, exploded." She incorporated it with a big waving motion with her arms, and both of the kids laughed. Wiping away the ketchup on her cheek, Leslie threw away the tissue and started listening to the raging noise downstairs.

"…your sisters sure do know how to create a tantrum."

Not quite sure what tantrum meant, Jess only nodded in response. Never one to leave such a thing hanging, he made a mental note to look the word up later. "You think we should go down?" Leslie raised an inquisitive eyebrow. Her friend shrugged.

"I think your mom will call us when its time to go. Until then, let's wait until the storm dies down." Jess always enjoyed listening to Leslie's speech; it always contained tons of things that he had never heard of before, and sometimes he wondered if she created these phrases herself or got it out of one of the countless books she read in her lifetime. But before his thoughts could get any further, it was interrupted. "So, Jess."

_Uh oh._

It was one of the phrases that Mary used when Jess was in trouble, or when she wanted to find out what her son had been doing. When it was spoken, there was never a good ending to the day. That might've explained the sinking feeling in his gut as Leslie stood up and offered her hand to him. Jess unconsciously took it, as if it was a natural response. A tiny wave of electricity coursed through his hand as Leslie helped him up. But not knowing what the feeling was, the boy dismissed it into the back of his head.

The two sat on the bed. A period of silence preceded Leslie's initiation of conversation.

"Do you ever wonder what its like up there?"

"Up there?"

"Yeah…up there, where the clouds float and the birds fly. I mean, I know beyond that is just space, but… sometimes, don't you wonder what its like to…" she closed her eyes, and her sentence was never finished.

"To live in the clouds?"

"To live in the clouds…"

Jess felt a strange feeling of déjà vu.

--

A cricket hopped away for its safety as shoes trampled on the dirt road.

After the catastrophic events in the Aarons' household, everything was finally prepared, and the Aarons headed out towards the field. Jess and Leslie towed behind them, with Jess carrying a bulging bag; Leslie had insisted that he should bring something for the smaller kids and themselves to play with after they were done eating.

_I'm pretty sure that our parents will go on talking about stuff and lose track of time._

--

"…profits down by fifteen percent this month, and I'm considering using the standard marketing technique to get more customers."

"What standard marketing technique are you talking about?" Bill inquired.

"Candy machines inside the store." Chuckles ensued. Pleased by his own little joke, Mr. Aarons took another bite in his ham sandwich, courtesy of the Burkes. Jess was concentrating on a small fly that buzzed around the sandwich. Eventually it landed on the piece of bread, and the moment it did Jess knew it wouldn't stand a chance against the mouth of Jack Aarons. Moments later, he finished the sandwich, and the fly was nowhere in sight.

Not having spoken a word since they left the house, Brenda and Ellie had their eyes fixed on their own sandwiches, slowly chewing and trying to savor the taste. It was, after all, filled with all sorts of ingredients, ones they would never see in their own fridge and pantry. Mrs. Burke, who had "constructed" said sandwiches, looked at the two teens and produced a soft smile.

Jess's mom was busy feeding Joyce Ann, and beside her May Belle was lying on her back, eyes dreamily gazing up at the blue sky.

Only Leslie seemed to be the only child that was actually talking, although it was to Jess with whispers to his ear. Most of the time Jess couldn't hear most of what she said, but the words "interesting" and "parents" could be made out. Suddenly, as if Leslie's body had been jolted by electricity, she jumped up. Jess, wondering if there was a bug or snake in the grass, stood up too and searched for movement in the grass.

"Hey Judy, Jess and I are going somewhere. Be back in an hour, okay?"

Judy's eyes went from Leslie, to Jess, then to Leslie again. Finally, in a joking voice, she said "be back in fifty minutes."

Leslie laughed, and ran off. Jess blanked out for a second, and then gave everything one last glance before taking off after her.

**--**

**Been out of the country for the past month, and now that school has started, I won't have as much time to write as I want to. Updates will come out slower for all of my stories.**


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